[Below is the text-only format of the Graphic Organizer for "Strawberries and DNA!" lab, the original - and printing - format is much more interesting to the eyes!]
Name:
Class Period:
Fruit-DNA-extraction
Believe it or not, you can actually extract DNA from fruit- in the comfort of your own kitchen! Let us see which fruit yields the best results for amount of DNA that can be extracted. As you go, fill out the table below for the different fruits, and write what you see.
Procedure:
1. Take the fruit, pull off any leaves that might be attached.
2. Weigh the berry, and write it HERE _
2. Put the fruit in a plastic bag; squish until it is very very squished. Here, you are trying to break down the cell walls of the plant, so that the contents of the cell are sloshing around in the plastic bag.
3. Carefully drain the juices of your fruit out of the bag into your glass, try to avoid getting too many large chunks/skin/leaves.
4. Add a few tablespoons of dishwashing soap to your glass of fruit juice. STIR VIGOROUSLY; until it is a little bit foamy. You are now trying to dissolve the nuclear envelopes of the cell, since the cell walls have been broken, now the individual nuclei are floating around somewhere. So stir.
5. Now, holding the glass at an angle, add the chilled isopropanol slowly down the side into the mixture. Doing this slowly, so that it separates just like oil and water.
Look at your lovely fruit DNA –goo suspended in the top layer!
Weight Observations (data table here)
O g of strawberry:
BERRY WONDERFUL EXIT SHEET!
1. Why do you think we crushed the fruit and add the soap? Why not just one or the other? Explain!
2. Why do you think we added the isopropanol at the end of the experiment?
3. Do you think there is a correlation between the size/ relative age of the berry and amount of DNA it produced? Explain why you believe it to be true or not!
[Differentiated sheet, for lower-level learners, or those who struggle with the concepts a bit further. ---->]
Name:
BERRY WONDERFUL EXIT SHEET!
1. What do you think the difference was between crushing the fruit and adding the soap? What were the similarities?
2. Why do you think we added the isopropanol at the end of the experiment?
3. Why do you think that certain sized berries “produced” more DNA than others?
Name:
Class Period:
Fruit-DNA-extraction
Believe it or not, you can actually extract DNA from fruit- in the comfort of your own kitchen! Let us see which fruit yields the best results for amount of DNA that can be extracted. As you go, fill out the table below for the different fruits, and write what you see.
Procedure:
1. Take the fruit, pull off any leaves that might be attached.
2. Weigh the berry, and write it HERE _
2. Put the fruit in a plastic bag; squish until it is very very squished. Here, you are trying to break down the cell walls of the plant, so that the contents of the cell are sloshing around in the plastic bag.
3. Carefully drain the juices of your fruit out of the bag into your glass, try to avoid getting too many large chunks/skin/leaves.
4. Add a few tablespoons of dishwashing soap to your glass of fruit juice. STIR VIGOROUSLY; until it is a little bit foamy. You are now trying to dissolve the nuclear envelopes of the cell, since the cell walls have been broken, now the individual nuclei are floating around somewhere. So stir.
5. Now, holding the glass at an angle, add the chilled isopropanol slowly down the side into the mixture. Doing this slowly, so that it separates just like oil and water.
Look at your lovely fruit DNA –goo suspended in the top layer!
Weight Observations (data table here)
O g of strawberry:
BERRY WONDERFUL EXIT SHEET!
1. Why do you think we crushed the fruit and add the soap? Why not just one or the other? Explain!
2. Why do you think we added the isopropanol at the end of the experiment?
3. Do you think there is a correlation between the size/ relative age of the berry and amount of DNA it produced? Explain why you believe it to be true or not!
[Differentiated sheet, for lower-level learners, or those who struggle with the concepts a bit further. ---->]
Name:
BERRY WONDERFUL EXIT SHEET!
1. What do you think the difference was between crushing the fruit and adding the soap? What were the similarities?
2. Why do you think we added the isopropanol at the end of the experiment?
3. Why do you think that certain sized berries “produced” more DNA than others?